Whenever someone asks me how to evaluate a designer's portfolio, I hesitate before answering.
Not because I don't have an opinion, but because experience has taught me that there is no checklist that guarantees you'll identify the right designer. I've seen beautifully presented portfolios lead to disappointing hires, and I've seen modest portfolios belong to designers who turned out to be exceptional contributors.
So rather than offering rules, I'd like to share the approach that has helped me make better hiring decisions over the years. If you're a founder, hiring manager, or engineering leader looking to hire an experienced designer, I hope these observations leave you better equipped than you were a few minutes ago.
1. Start with the Fundamentals
Your first review is a screening exercise. At this stage, you're trying to answer a simple question:
Can this designer solve problems in a structured way?
Look for evidence of:
- An understandable design process
- Problem-solving rather than just visual execution
- Clear communication
- Thoughtful visual design
- A logical progression from problem to solution
These fundamentals tell you whether it's worth investing more time in the candidate. They don't tell you whether you've found the right person.
2. Don't Count Deliverables. Follow the Connections.
Many portfolios today are remarkably similar.
You'll see user interviews, personas, card sorting, information architecture, task flows, wireframes, typography, colour palettes and polished UI screens. Every expected deliverable is present.
The problem is that many of these portfolios present activities rather than decisions.
The question I ask myself is never:
Did they conduct user research?
Instead, I ask:
How did the research influence the design?
Can I see how research changed the task flow? Did usability testing result in a different interaction? Did a business constraint alter the final solution?
Good portfolios don't simply document the process. They demonstrate cause and effect.
3. Understand What Kind of Project You're Looking At
One of the biggest mistakes I see is assuming commercial projects are automatically better than personal ones.
In reality, each type of project tells you something different.
- Client projects reveal how someone works within constraints.
- Personal or passion projects often reveal how someone thinks when they have complete ownership.
- Academic projects show how a new designer approaches learning and structured problem solving.
In fact, I've often found that personal projects demonstrate a designer's capabilities more clearly than commercial work.
Commercial projects come with invisible compromises—legacy systems, stakeholder opinions, engineering limitations, deadlines and business priorities. The final solution may not fully reflect the designer's ability.
A personal project removes many of those constraints. It allows you to see how the designer defines the problem, explores alternatives and arrives at decisions.
So don't judge the origin of the project. Judge the quality of the thinking behind it.
4. The Portfolio Isn't Finished Until the Conversation Begins
Reviewing a portfolio isn't a one-time activity.
The second evaluation happens during the interview.
I usually ask the designer to choose the project they are most proud of and walk me through it from the very beginning.
Not from the polished screens.
From the day they first received the problem.
How were the requirements gathered? What assumptions did they begin with? What changed? What surprised them? Where did they struggle?
This conversation tells me far more than the portfolio itself.
5. Listen for the Happy Path
UX designers often talk about the "happy path"—the ideal user journey where everything works exactly as expected.
Ironically, many portfolios are presented the same way.
Everything flows perfectly.
- Research
- Personas
- Wireframes
- UI Design
- Prototype
Real projects rarely work like that.
Real projects contain disagreements, changing requirements, failed assumptions, engineering constraints, stakeholder feedback and difficult compromises.
When a designer has genuinely lived through a project, those moments naturally appear in their story.
When the story contains only the happy path, I become curious. Not because I assume the designer is being dishonest, but because genuine design work is almost never that tidy.
6. Give the Designer the Benefit of the Doubt
One mistake interviewers make is assuming that if a designer doesn't explain something, they don't understand it.
That isn't always true.
Experienced designers often omit details because they assume those details are obvious to everyone in the room.
Instead of concluding that something is missing, ask another question.
A simple prompt like, "What made you change that interaction?" or "How did you arrive at this flow?" can open up a rich discussion that never appeared in the portfolio.
Your role isn't to catch the candidate out. Your role is to understand how they think.
A Practical Review Guide
- Look for: Evidence of structured problem solving, not just polished visuals.
- Look for: Connections between research, decisions and outcomes.
- Be careful if: Every project follows the exact same process with no constraints or trade-offs.
- Ask: "What changed because of your research?"
- Ask: "Walk me through this project from the beginning."
- Remember: Evaluate experienced designers differently from fresh graduates. Their portfolios serve different purposes.
A portfolio is an important hiring tool, but only if you know how to read it.
The strongest portfolios aren't the ones with the most deliverables. They're the ones that reveal how a designer thinks, why decisions were made, and how those decisions evolved as the project unfolded.
If you can move beyond checking whether the process exists and start understanding how the process shaped the outcome, you'll make better hiring decisions—and you'll evaluate designers with far greater confidence.
